High power light emitting diode (“LED”) flashlights are known to be useful and dependable tools. The LED lamps may produce hundreds of lumens of light, are shock resistant, and have lifespans measured in tens of thousands of hours. One drawback of high power LED lamps, however, is the considerable heat that they produce. Proper thermal management of LEDs is necessary to avoid unduly shortening the lifespan of LEDs due to excessive temperatures. Accordingly, it is common in known LED flashlights to provide a metal alloy bezel and/or housing to enclose the LED lamp and reflector, and to thermally couple the LED lamp to the metal alloy bezel and/or housing to dissipate the heat. In such known flashlights, the bezel of the flashlight may be a separate component that is joined to a housing of the flashlight, often by threaded engagement. Alloys of aluminum and other metals are often used for their high thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance and strength.
Aluminum alloy components have certain disadvantages. For example, colors cannot be molded into an aluminum alloy component. Only a very limited range of colors may be hard coat anodized onto the surface. Paint and other coatings have a wide gamut of colors and may be applied to metal alloy surfaces, but paints and other coatings are subject to wear, fading, scratching and other damage. Additionally, while some alloys are relatively lightweight compared to other metals, they are heavy relative to other materials, such as high strength thermoplastics and polymers.
High strength polymer components have certain advantages over metal alloy components. Polymer components are lighter in weight than their metal alloy counterparts. Also, a wide range of colors and patterns may be molded into polymer components, such as high visibility colors, camouflage patterns, and the like. However, polymers and plastics have relatively low thermal conductivity, and are unsuitable for thermal management applications.